After reading through the latest Titan Books release, Exposure, I sat down for a chat with the author, Louis Greenberg. My review for the book can be found at Set The Tape.
Exposure deals with an alternate Britain where the National Health Service no longer exists, and there seems to be more anti-immigration sentiment. What made you choose to use these elements for your story, was it purely to help with the narrative, or are these issues that you think are relevant in everyday life?
Whenever I start a book, I like to think of some social issue that moves me, and can help motivate my characters. As a fairly recent resident in the UK, I recognise just how precious and special the NHS and the UK’s other post-war social services are and what a pity it would be if they were sold off. Britain’s libraries, state schools, public parks, arts funding, and so on are such an amazing social good and it feels like they are deliberately being squeezed; maybe it takes living without those resources to really appreciate them. My little hobbyhorse this time around would be to encourage readers to recognise what they stand to lose and to resist losing them. That all said, the politics is very much background colour in the novel, not a thematic issue.
The book focuses a lot on identity, and how people can treat you differently depending on how they perceive you, whether it’s Petra who’s living in the UK after moving there from South Africa, Vincent being seen as less legitimately British because he’s Black, or Sooki trying to distance herself from her rich family. What is it about identity and the way it shapes perception that appeals to you?
I am an utter mongrel, never comfortably in my space. I grew up in the weirdness of apartheid South Africa, with three grandparents who were first-generation immigrants from different countries, but I because I was white, I was allowed to belong in my suburbs more than the people whose land we were on. Add to that mix layers of different religions and colonial affiliations and it probably makes sense that I’m still trying to unpick the knots of identity and belonging.
You grew up in South Africa, as did the main character Petra. Are there certain aspects of Petra that are similar to you, whether it be her experiences in Britain, or the way her mother is; or is she more disconnected from your own experiences?
Petra’s actually quite unlike me. She’s far more upbeat and relaxed, for one thing. I modelled her mother on an artistic friend of my own mother, so there’s not really much biography there apart, perhaps, from her initial reactions to living in England: that sense of delight and wonder in the seasons and the beauty and trying very hard not to let the more mundane reality seep in at the edges.
Your previous book with Titan, Green Valley, dealt with reality and how what we might perceive not always being real through the use of virtual reality; Exposure seems to do similar things with the inclusion of the Metamuse shows and how it gets into the heads of the audience and messes with them. Is reality and how we see the world something that influences your writing a lot?
I’ve always loved film and fiction that disorients my sense of reality, recalibrates and shifts subtly. At the same time, it can’t be a fantasy free-for-all where anything goes, because then you lose your connection to the world and it doesn’t leave you with that uncanny feeling. It’s a fine balance and my favourite work manages to get it right. I always try to write the sort of book I’d like to read, so I try to aim for those effects.
Was it difficult to craft the Metamuse shows that feature in the book? They seem very otherworldly at times, and really test the people viewing them, was it a challenge to try and create something like that that translated well into the written word?
It was difficult! I was so inspired by the real shows I had seen and read about but quickly realised I couldn’t translate the effect directly. As characters say in the book, you have to experience it for yourself. So I eventually came up with the idea of describing most of the shows obliquely or through reviews, which hopefully allows you to imagine the shows and recreate some of the experience in your mind.
What was it that initially inspired you to create Exposure, and did those ideas change over time or did the central themes and ideas for the book stay pretty consistent?
The seed of this book was in the first manuscript I ever finished, twenty years ago (!). I changed that a lot and then left it behind, and then when I saw Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man in 2015, I knew that their sort of immersive theatre would be the perfect vehicle for the story. Then I had to finish various other projects before I could get onto Exposure. I’m glad I waited, because the story found its best form in the end.
Exposure deals with themes of loss and death in a number of ways, was it difficult to do this, and as a father was it hard to write a character who had lost a child?
I generally keep my characters’ losses separate from my own life – otherwise I wouldn’t be able to write the sort of books I do. I can empathise with loss from my own experience, of course, so I hope that can add some depth to the characters’ reactions.
What made you choose to set the book in the Leamington Spa area?
This is my neighbourhood at the moment. I’ve set most of my books in the place I live (apart from Green Valley 😊); I like to gather inspiration for locations and environmental description and characters from the places around me. I think if I set an unusual scene against a very realistic background, it can be more surprising than if it’s in a thinly made-up world. I like to blend detailed realism with somewhat warped reality.
You’ve got a Masters degree in vampire fiction, as well as a doctorate in post-religious apocalyptic fiction; what is it about these fields of fiction that appeals to you the most?
I grew up docile and uncritical and Catholic in the straitened context of apartheid education, so it was mind-blowing to be confronted by the heady topics of sex and religion and monstrosity and psychology and feminism and queerness at university, all at the incredible moment when South Africa turned to democracy. I had some great teachers who showed how all these things applied to Victorian and modern horror, and that more than any other course opened my mind for the rest of my life. In many ways, I had an adolescent awakening a few years late, in my early twenties, when I knew better what to do with it.
What kinds of books do you enjoy reading yourself, and do you find that any of these have helped to influence your work over the years?
As above, I’ve always enjoyed books that play with style and genre, that do unexpected things with your mind. I like writers like earlier Paul Auster and Jonathan Lethem, Scarlett Thomas and Ali Smith, David Mitchell, Michel Faber, Haruki Murakami, etc. etc.. I’m as inspired by visually interesting and genre-busting TV and film these days: Better Call Saul of course, I Hate Suzie, Giri/Haji, Russian Doll, Midnight Mass, etc. etc. If something’s particularly stayed with me as I start a draft, I might keep it mind as a mood calibrator. I gather moods and style swatches from inspiring work, probably, more than story ideas.
What can people look forward to seeing from you in the future, do you have any other projects currently in the works?
This is the first time in twelve years that I haven’t had a book on the go, so I’m enjoying a bit of time off to follow other pursuits between paid work. I’m currently brushing up on my computer programming, but I don’t expect that to thrill many readers. Next up, I have some good characters and storylines that need to go into a screenplay.
Anyone interested in seeing more of Louis Greenberg's work can head over to his website to find more.
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